SMALL BITES: All Souls Pizza

SPECIAL SAUCE:The lunchtime ham and provolone sandwich is among many dishes at All Souls Pizza that get a flavor boost from the addition of fermented vegetables and sauces. Photo by Carolyn Manney.

Nearly four months after its summer opening, All Souls Pizza has taken its promised plunge into lunch service and is forging ahead with some community-oriented projects as well. The lunch expansion offers new hours and a dedicated menu for the day crowd, while other projects are opening up a new outdoor space for community gatherings.

Daytime diners will find the same creatively topped selection of wood-fired 9-inch pies on either a wheat or gluten-free polenta crust as seen on the dinner menu, but they will also be able to choose from some new sandwiches, along with soup and salad options. The offerings change periodically with seasonal shifts in availability of the restaurant’s locally grown ingredients.

According to co-owner David Bauer, who also operates Farm & Sparrow artisan bakery, a highlight of the lunch menu is the open-face ham-and-provolone sandwich. It is, he says, “really just a simple ham-and-cheese sandwich” — served on a generous slice of Farm & Sparrow’s market bread with fermented turnip-and-garlic paste. Once baked in All Souls’ wood-fired oven, it becomes something truly special.

Lunch is not the only new thing All Souls is serving up this fall. The restaurant occupies the spot of the former Silver Dollar Restaurant across from the Grey Eagle on Clingman Avenue The property has a large yard that the owners are eager to use for the greater good. As the host of the Montford Farmers Market’s recent Autumn Feast, All Souls set up a long row of picnic tables in the yard and built a fire pit to serve a family-style meal of pit-roasted lamb with handmade tortillas and salsa, prepared with the help of Chef Elliott Moss, formerly of The Admiral and Ben’s Tune-Up.

Bauer, who says he has “a lot of history with farmers and markets,” says All Souls will host a similar event for the West Asheville Tailgate Market on Tuesday, Nov. 19, and will be doing a whole-hog roast for Carolina Ground grain-milling cooperative in the near future.

Plans are in the works, Bauer says, to build a stage in their field this fall for use by local groups — whether food-related or not — that need somewhere to meet or hold events. “We’re not going to charge for it,” says Bauer. “It’ll just be open to the community. It’s an amazing natural space we have available.” — Gina Smith